Wednesday, September 22, 2010

The Insulated Thermal Food Container

... or "Thermos," of course. My kid would starve without the ability to tote hot lunches to school.

Someone asked a few posts back how thermoses work, and it's pretty easy: while you're heating up whatever, fill the waiting thermos with REALLY hot water from the kettle and let it sit for a few minutes. Then when the food is ready, dump the water, briskly wipe the thermos with a tea towel, insert food and voila, with any luck your kid will have reasonably hot soup come lunchtime.

Here is a longish list of things that Her Royal Pickyness has seen fit to bring to school:
- hot apple cider
- hot chocolate
- a mocha, which the Wee Sophisticate made and packed herself without informing me and now I get to be known as the mother with the 11 year old who brings coffee to school, lucky me.
- Hot pasta sauce, and a container of cold pasta to mix together at lunchtime.
- 5 million thermoses of soup.
- Baked beans her grandfather made. Of course, she can't bring beans of any sort now, grade six being the way it is.
- And chili. Lots of chili. Chili is probably off the roster too now - I should probably ask.
- I nearly forgot: hot taco stuff, with the rest of the taco packed in her lunchbag. That's always a hit.
- Apple crisp!

I'm sure there are other things, but that's all I can think of right now.

I've heard from some parents that thermoses are a bit dorky at their kids school and their children won't bring them - but they seem to either be all right at the Girl's school OR she's just oblivious. Do your kids bring thermoses? What do you pack in them?

7 comments:

  1. Risotto. My husband tends to make enough for an army, and she likes it, so the next day a portion gets buzzed in the microwave and dumped in the thermos. We never bother with the heating up the thermos part, but that sounds like a good idea.

    We also use the thermos for cold things, like "yogurt mixed up with jelly" - that is to say, plain yogurt with a spoonful of jam or jelly. In fact, that's what she's having today.

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  2. Yep, we use them. I heat their thermoses up with boiling water first, too. I send soup or chilli. I never thought of sending just hot pasta sauce with the noodles on the side! That is an awesome idea. As is the taco idea. My kids would love that.

    We also have "cold" thermoses. I bought them thinking they were smaller hot thermoses. Once I got them home I read the warning to not put hot things in them. Handy. So now i use those to send dry cereal (milk on the side) or cold pasta salad. Stuff like that.

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  3. We use them - they mostly take chili, soup, baked beans, pasta (leftovers). We've done the taco thing, as well as heated up veggie weiners with the buns, etc. in the lunchbox.

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  4. So far all I have used our thermos for is pasta and soup, these are some great ideas though, so thanks everyone!

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  5. I only have a preschooler, so a thermos seems overkill at this juncture. However, your post brought back memories of my mom sending us to school with thermoses full of soup. She would seal them so tightly that we couldn't open them and we'd have to ask the lunch ladies for help. The image of the lunch lady with the drawn on eyebrows sweating and swearing over my thermos while I, a small child just wanting my chicken noodle soup, stood ashamedly nearby, will haunt me forever.

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  6. for a long time all MQ wanted was a thermos full of spaghettios, every day. I think spaghettios are possibly the grossest thing ever invented, but I figured I could be packing her worse things. She is particularly happy when I have leftover quiche to put in there. right now chili is the standard.

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  7. That was me who asked. Thanks everyone for the ideas! I don't think too many kids bring Thermoses, and they probably are dorky, but so are homemade cookies, so....

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